Franklin Resources Inc. Sells 36,142 Shares of EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT)

Franklin Resources Inc. lowered its position in shares of EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) by 11.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 280,803 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 36,142 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in EQT were worth $12,948,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of EQT. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in EQT by 34.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,997,574 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $511,159,000 after buying an additional 3,582,418 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of EQT by 386.9% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 4,347,660 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $205,830,000 after acquiring an additional 3,454,741 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of EQT in the 4th quarter worth approximately $113,924,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of EQT by 14.7% in the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 13,829,938 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $637,698,000 after purchasing an additional 1,774,696 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd bought a new position in shares of EQT during the 4th quarter valued at $67,977,000. 90.81% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $49.00 price target on shares of EQT in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on EQT from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Piper Sandler raised their price target on EQT from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Citigroup lifted their price target on EQT from $51.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “reduce” rating on shares of EQT in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.11.

EQT Stock Up 2.4 %

EQT stock opened at $47.21 on Tuesday. EQT Co. has a fifty-two week low of $30.02 and a fifty-two week high of $56.66. The company has a market capitalization of $28.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 118.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.35. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $51.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $45.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.70.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.81 billion. EQT had a return on equity of 4.35% and a net margin of 4.37%. As a group, analysts forecast that EQT Co. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

EQT Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were given a dividend of $0.1575 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.33%. EQT’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 157.50%.

EQT Company Profile

EQT Corporation operates as a natural gas production company in the United States. The company sells natural gas and natural gas liquids to marketers, utilities, and industrial customers through pipelines located in the Appalachian Basin. It also offers marketing services and contractual pipeline capacity management services.